Students lobby for W&M at annual 'Road to Richmond'

Road to RichmondStudents meet with Senator Charles Colgan (D-29th) during the annual Road to Richmond event on Jan. 24.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Table talkJ.D. Kelley '13 (right), who helped organize the event, talks with Ric Brown, Virginia's secretary of finance, during a breakfast at the Library of Virginia.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

President and delegateW&M President Taylor Reveley (left) talks with Delegate Chris Jones (R-76th) during the breakfast at the Library of Virginia.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

With gifts in handStudents cross a street in Richmond as they make their way to the General Assembly Building.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Expert adviceFran Bradford, associate vice president for government relations at W&M, offers the students some advice for meeting with legislators.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Competing interestsJ.D. Kelley '13 (right) and another W&M student talk with a Long Vihn (left), a medical student from the University of Virginia who was also at the General Assembly Building to advocate for his university.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Token of appreciationW&M students carry bags of green and gold M&Ms to give to the legislators they meet with.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Despite the frigid temperatures, a crowd of smartly dressed
students huddled together amid the gently falling snow outside the Sadler
Center at 5:45 a.m. Jan. 24, waiting to board the bus that would carry them to
Richmond. One ride along an increasingly white I-64 later, the team of budding
lobbyists dispersed throughout the General Assembly Building to sit down with
state legislators and their aides,
extolling the virtues of William & Mary and talking about the legislative
issues affecting the university this session.

The effort was part of the annual Road to Richmond
event designed to bring students to the Commonwealth’s capital to meet with
state legislators and advocate for the university. This year’s Road to Richmond,
organized by W&M's Government Relations office, the president’s office
and the Student Assembly, saw more than 20 students participate alongside
several faculty, alumni and administrators.

“Before I graduate, I want to give back to the school in as
many ways as I can, and I thought this would be a very tangible way to give
back to the College,” said Madelyn Smith ’13. “It’s really important to
advocate for your school.”

‘To robustly sing
William & Mary’s song’

In preparation for the trip, the organizers held a planning
meeting with the event’s organizers, where Student Assembly President Curt
Mills ’13 gave the attendees an overview of the event, and Michael Fox,
President Taylor Reveley’s chief of staff, described the history and objectives
of the Road to Richmond event.

“We would be a very different school—as well as bankrupt—if
we didn’t have out-of-state students,” he said. “The mix of our student body,
which includes people from all across the United States and increasingly from
around the world, greatly enriches our community.”

He also encouraged students to ask legislators to support
need-based financial aid, “so that William & Mary remains affordable for
families who don’t have the means to pay tuition.”

The most important part, he added, was that students should
“just be your usual completely glued-together and charming selves.”

“Basically convey you really like William & Mary,” he
said.

On the day of the event, the Road to Richmond team made its
way to the Library of Virginia for a breakfast during which the delegation was
able to meet some of the state’s legislators.

Reveley addressed the attendees as they dined, urging the
students to have fun and remarking on the quality of W&M’s
undergraduate program, which has, for the eighth year in a row, received a
record number of applications.

The president also discussed the history of the Road
to Richmond and its value to the College.

“For 320 years, W&M has grown a lot of history and a lot
of traditions,” he said. “One of them is the Road to Richmond that you are on
this year. It’s been going on for 20 years, old enough to be a solidly
established tradition, and one of real value to the College because it gets a group
of our students up here to see some legislators, and to robustly sing William
& Mary’s song and to get some sense of the how the legislative process
works.”

‘A legacy of
responsibility’

Leaving the Library of Virginia, the student-lobbyists
crossed the road to the General Assembly Building and, once inside, fought for
elevator space as they made their way to a sixth-floor conference room.

Once inside, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R-3rd)
spoke with the students about the importance of their advocacy for the university.
Norment, a law and government instructor at W&M who also serves as an
advisor, is an alumnus of the William & Mary Law School.

“You all are the best advocates because you are the ones
that are consuming the educational product that we are delivering, and
consequently the importance of you being here is that the 140 legislators see
you, and they know that’s where the investment of the state is going. Don’t be
bashful,” Norment J.D. ’73 told the students.

He insisted that their labor, while perhaps not having an
immediately apparent effect, was nonetheless vital to the College.

“Advocacy has to be continuous. There cannot be a recess.
There cannot be any break in it. There has to be that constant, deliberate awareness
in front of the legislators. You all individually may not see the benefit of
what you’re doing before you graduate, but some of that is what we refer to as
legacy or responsibility,” he said.

Norment pressed upon the students the value of their “extraordinary
education” and the responsibility that education entails.

“You want to maintain, if you will, the value of that
diploma. You have a legacy of responsibility and I encourage you to take that
very seriously,” he said.

In the field

After Norment concluded his remarks, the group divided into teams
of two or three, dispersing throughout the General Assembly Building to perform
the day’s work of speaking with legislators and their staffs.

Stacey LaRiviere ’14, Victor Ganier ’14 and Keenan Kelley
’14 went to work immediately, visiting the office of Senate President Pro
Tempore Walter Stosch (R-12th). While the senator was not in, the team spoke
with a legislative aide about some of W&M’s priorities and left the
senator a bag of green and gold M&M candies as a token of their
appreciation.

LaRiviere is currently an intern for Norment’s office, a
position that offers her a unique perspective on the lobbying efforts. A
veteran of Road to Richmond, having helped organize last year’s event, La
Riviere says that her participation “ignited my passion for government affairs
in general and made me see that advocacy is so important at every level.”

“Students have a unique perspective. They see what William
& Mary needs at a different level than the Board of Visitors or President
Reveley. They come into direct contact with Tyler and the ISC [Integrated
Science Center] and know what we need,” she said.

Kelley and Ganier also met with Senators Frank Ruff (R-15th)
and Harry Blevins (R-14th). Kelley, an out-of-state student from Connecticut,
and Ganier, an international student from France, focused on the value of
geographical diversity to the university in their conversations with the
legislators.

Ganier, who studied law in France, was eager to see the
process of lobbying in action.

“Senator Ruff was very interested in what we were saying; he
was open to our suggestions. I was afraid to meet people who just wanted to get
rid of us, but he really interacted with us,” he said.

After speaking with legislators, some students took
advantage of an opportunity to sit in on a meeting of the Senate Education and
Health Committee, witnessing the early stages of the legislative process in
action.

“We listened to the educational committee, which talked
about various issues involving school boards, but one issue that I was
concerned about was whether or not Teach for America would get a license to
work in Virginia. It was interesting to listen to a lot of bills concerning
K-12 pass into floor consideration,” said Will Mann ’13, who spoke with Senator
Charles Colgan (D-29th) earlier in the day.

The road to
Williamsburg

At around 11:40 a.m., the students reunited in the General
Assembly Building’s lobby, sharing stories about the people they had met and
the conversations they had had. Once the group had gathered, they made their
way back through the snowy streets to board the bus that would carry them back
once more to Williamsburg where many had classes awaiting their return.

The prospect of a 20-minute scramble for lunch before
dashing to class did little to hamper Mann’s enthusiasm for the morning’s
efforts.

“I really get a kick out of it. It’s thrilling. I’ve
benefitted from the small size of William & Mary and I want to make sure
that the legislators know just how wonderful it is,” said Mann, a three-year
Road to Richmond veteran.

“Most of the delegates you talk to are super-enthusiastic
about the College. They want to hear about your experiences, how much you’re learning
and how much you’re growing. Most people you talk to really want to know that
the decisions they’re helping to make and the money they’re helping to pass is
really beneficial and they couldn’t be happier to talk to students,” he said.